Building My First Layout

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On a positive note, all of my other engines work. The only 3 that I haven't tested yet are the steam engines in the bigger, fancier boxes.

A few days ago I made a 4ft long test track on a 1x3 piece of wood. The track is nailed in place with Atlas track nails, and I used Atlas terminal joiners wired to my MRC Railpower 1370 power pack.
 
It's been a while since my last update. Not much has happened because what progress I did make was doing very time consuming projects, like removing all the track to sand the plywood top, then using caulk to fill the holes and cracks, painting the cork, then painting the plywood, then laying the track again without connecting it, so I can get an idea where I need to drill holes for wiring.

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I have all the track on the cork roadbed. The plywood that's not painted is going to be water.

I had to make the water area bigger to accommodate a Walther's car float and tugboat that I haven't assembled yet. The new section is 32" long on the long side, 24" long on the shorter side and 8" wide. I used a bunch of scrap 1x2's, and the plywood was scrap too.
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This is what the water looks like with no paint, 59.25" long and 24" wide on the right side
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The car float will be tied up along a harbor wall as if it's in a staging or holding area. There is no room for a car float apron. This layout isn't prototypical, so I can get away with that :)
 
I also made my control panel out of scrap wood. I'll post a pic or 2 (or more...) here, as well as a link to the separate thread I started for a control panel discussion. It's 40 5/8" x 24", and 1.5" deep at the front, 4" deep in the back.

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I Need Some Ideas For Making A Control Panel

I'm at the point in my layout build where I need to design and build a control panel for all of my Atlas DC switches, controllers, and 2 or 3 power packs. I plan on mounting a piece of plywood on a pair of heavy duty drawer slides, so that I can pull the panel out like a drawer when I run...
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I have the outer mainline wired and nailed down. I ran 2 different engines on the track last night, and the bascule bridge repeatedly made both engines derail. Luckily, the engines stayed on the tracks, so nothing was damaged.

The plastic trestles, or risers, are screwed to the plywood, and the gaps between the tracks are as tight as they can be. This is one of the places that caused a derailment. These gaps are massive and completely unavoidable due to how the ties fit under the tabs on the risers.

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The other problem area is where the bridge closes on the left side, the rails don't line up properly, no matter how I try to adjust them

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There's really nothing to adjust or correct this offset. I'll try a few different adjustments this weekend, but I'm not very confident that I can make this work.

At this point, I'm ready to remove the bascule bridge and put a 90 degree intersection there instead. All of the mainline works great, very smooth all the way around, until the bascule bridge and risers.

This was new in box when I opened it, so it's not like it was tampered with before I got it from my dad's collection.
 
Marlin338MX said:
I have the outer mainline wired and nailed down. I ran 2 different engines on the track last night, and the bascule bridge repeatedly made both engines derail. Luckily, the engines stayed on the tracks, so nothing was damaged.

The plastic trestles, or risers, are screwed to the plywood, and the gaps between the tracks are as tight as they can be. This is one of the places that caused a derailment. These gaps are massive and completely unavoidable due to how the ties fit under the tabs on the risers.

View attachment 180134

View attachment 180135

The other problem area is where the bridge closes on the left side, the rails don't line up properly, no matter how I try to adjust them

View attachment 180136

There's really nothing to adjust or correct this offset. I'll try a few different adjustments this weekend, but I'm not very confident that I can make this work.

At this point, I'm ready to remove the bascule bridge and put a 90 degree intersection there instead. All of the mainline works great, very smooth all the way around, until the bascule bridge and risers.

This was new in box when I opened it, so it's not like it was tampered with before I got it from my dad's collection.
Click to expand...
I would line the bridge up and try to shim whichever side needs it to keep the rails lined up
 
If you do use shims I would shim everything exactly the same to keep the grade as is, use that same shim to start the upward climb one section before your tiers start hidden under your foliage…

2 options for the gap - file down the ties so you can fit them between the tabs, might mean having to adjust the tiers though so everything still lines up - or if you have extra track piece cut small sections of rail out and fit them between the gaps using the joiner…
 


Takes time and patience for sure…. Usually when I get to a slightly frustrating section I will go to something else while I think about my trouble spot, something simple will pop in my head and make me wonder what I was thinking…

You got a couple short sections on the incline, any way to put those near the start of the uphill and you can just have a natural hill that supports them? Save the tiers for the 9” straight joints…
 
For the incline, I would scrap the plastic risers. I would build your own out of a stick of plywood or use the Woodland scenices inclines. That right there will solve the whole gap, unsupported track issue. Even if you get this somewhat situated to work for now by filing ties or whatever, it is going to come back to haunt you later. I would also think about using flex track for the incline.
 
I solved the bascule bridge problems today.

A few months ago, I assembled the bascule bridge and ran some engines around the track and over the bridge. I didn't like the idea of only having 3 bridge piers on both sides of the bridge. But my track wasn't nailed down yet, so maybe that's why the engines didn't run well, and derailed over the bridge and the poorly supported incline/decline portions

But I didn't waste any time, and ordered the Atlas bridge pier kit so I could have another option
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Fast forward to this week and I have my track nailed down, and the 6 original bridge piers screwed down, and the bascule bridge still derailed my engines.

Today I removed the 3" track that was glued to the "left" side of the bridge (opposite of the tower). I replaced it with a custom length piece of track that was about 1/8" longer. I attached the new 3" piece to the bridge with nickel silver track joiners. The bridge will not open like it's designed to. In fact, it won't open at all, and it won't be wired at all. It wasn't going to raise & lower anyway, so no loss there.

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There are some small gaps between a few rails, but not enough to cause any problems. The uneven tracks on the bridge were filed smooth. There are now 7 bridge piers on each side of the bridge, which supports the track as it should. The bridge piers were nailed down using Atlas track nails, 4 nails per pier.

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Now my engines run smoothly all the way around the track, with no issues going over the bridge. The engines go clockwise and counterclockwise with no issues. The entire modification took less than 3 hours.

Next task will be to wire the inside mainline loop, and start running trains🙂
 
Marlin338MX said:
I solved the bascule bridge problems today.

A few months ago, I assembled the bascule bridge and ran some engines around the track and over the bridge. I didn't like the idea of only having 3 bridge piers on both sides of the bridge. But my track wasn't nailed down yet, so maybe that's why the engines didn't run well, and derailed over the bridge and the poorly supported incline/decline portions

But I didn't waste any time, and ordered the Atlas bridge pier kit so I could have another option
View attachment 180194

Fast forward to this week and I have my track nailed down, and the 6 original bridge piers screwed down, and the bascule bridge still derailed my engines.

Today I removed the 3" track that was glued to the "left" side of the bridge (opposite of the tower). I replaced it with a custom length piece of track that was about 1/8" longer. I attached the new 3" piece to the bridge with nickel silver track joiners. The bridge will not open like it's designed to. In fact, it won't open at all, and it won't be wired at all. It wasn't going to raise & lower anyway, so no loss there.

View attachment 180195

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There are some small gaps between a few rails, but not enough to cause any problems. The uneven tracks on the bridge were filed smooth. There are now 7 bridge piers on each side of the bridge, which supports the track as it should. The bridge piers were nailed down using Atlas track nails, 4 nails per pier.

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Now my engines run smoothly all the way around the track, with no issues going over the bridge. The engines go clockwise and counterclockwise with no issues. The entire modification took less than 3 hours.

Next task will be to wire the inside mainline loop, and start running trains🙂
Click to expand...
Glad you got it sorted, looks good too.
 


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